Dept. of Defense will not fund training center

The Department of Defense will no longer award a $1.8 million grant to the School of Medicine to open a training center for Army soldiers, according to a statement from Deputy Public Affairs Officer for U.S. Special Operations Command Kenneth McGraw to the New Haven Register this morning.

The Department of Defense retracted its original statement to the Register, in which it confirmed awarding the grant to School of Medicine psychiatry professor Charles Morgan, who would propose to use the center for teaching interview techniques to soldiers.

“U.S. Special Operations Command has not and will not provide Yale funds to establish a USSOCOM Center for Excellence for Operational Neuroscience,” McGraw told the Register in an email.

“We sincerely apologize for any problems, concerns or confusion releasing the erroneous information has caused Yale, its student body and the citizens of New Haven.”

The statement follows a release last night from School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern, indicating the School of Medicine would not move forward with the proposal for the center until the University fully investigated concerns over the project’s academic integrity and morality from members of the Yale and New Haven communities.